Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-03-25

shot away their cartridges they hunt
ed up all the camp kettles and tin
pans and beat them furiously with
sticks and stones, still yelling and
shouting as!fast as they could gather
breath enough to do so. The camp
was q literal pandemonium. Heaped
with wood the fires blazed high, and
the forest was aglow with LIGHT.
did the generals try TO stop the
riot? Not a bit Of it. They felt just MS
hilarious and yelled as loud as any
body else. There was no rank in
camp that night. Officers and men
joined in the appalling racket, vying
with one another in producing the
most startling effects; Halt an hour
after the trouble began an orderly
from headquarters brought around
an order. 1t said: -
" 'Regimental commanders will issue q
ration OF whiskey to each officer and man.
Up. S.-Give 'em q double ration
"The army was not exactly q tenn
perance. society, pledged to total
abstinence, and you may we'll be-
lieve this order was received
with great enthusiasm. 1t was
not long till the 'commissary' was dis
turbed, each man receiving his portion
in his canteen or tin cup. An Illinois
colonel mounted stump and, as he
hsld up his canteen, declared that q
man who wouldn't get drunk that
night didn't deserved to have a country;
and if any man OF his regiment should
be found sober IN one hour by the
watch he would be tried on the spot
by drum.head court-martial. He
then set an example by emptying his
canteen at single pull while the boys
cheered with tremendous vigor.
"Under the exhilaratlng influence
OF the liquor the din became
simply infernal-even that word
seems weak and meaningless
to describe such a. scene. There
was no violence, no fighting, every
body had had enough of that. 1t
was simply a ha ppy drink all
round. Thousands Of voices Joined
in singing the old army songs Battle
Cry OF Freedom Red, White and
Blue Tramp, Tramp John Browns
Body and therude parodies OF Dixie
and Bonnie Blue Flag If harmony
was lacking the deficiency was made
up q hundredfold in the vast volume
of sound. Now and then somebody
would start up the doxology-'Praise
God From Whom All Blessings Flow
Ito tie tune OF old Hundred, and
those leather-lunged veterans would
sing it as it was never sung before.
There wasn't thought of irreverence
about it, either. They sung it with
the spirit and with the understanding
also,' as truly as ever did the Worship
pers at a. Methodist camp-meeting.
''Men did all sorts Of grotesque and
ridiculous things. They climbed trees
and yelled from among the branches;
they made heroic speeches from logs
and stumps; they turned their clothes
inside out; they rode one another on
poles-they did every thing that great
fertility OF resource in this direction
could suggest. At the headquarters
Of our brigade a horse bucket full Of
egggg-nog was made, and the general and
his staff INDUCED in copious libations.
After several rounds they sailed
fort and seized the instruments OF the
band, and formed for parade
through the camp. The general head.
ed the procession with the bass drum,
which he pounded so furiously that he
broke in one OF the heads. The
staff officers, with horns, blew the
most wildly discordant blasts. As
they marched hither and thither, reg
mental and company officers, and
hundreds of soldiers feel in behind the
general and his staff, until the col.
umn of bowling lunatics was quarter
OF q mile long.
"Now there are, no doubt, in this
present year OF our Lord, many most
excellent people who will say that the
soldiers OF the Fourth corps did q
very reprehensible thing in getting
drunk that night. While, perhaps,
agreeing with them on general princi-
Piles, will say that no human being
unless he has been there can rise to
the full comprehension of such an oc.
casion. It was before the days OF the
temperance crusade, and the provoca-
ton was extraordinary. Ifthere was,
since the world was created, an excuse
that would hold water for q Temporal
ry lapse from sobriety, it was then
and there. Four years OF toiling and
suffering such as others know not; of
weary marches and vigils by day and
by night, through fierce heat and beat.
ing storm; Of facing the pitiless bullets
and screaming shell, against awful
scenes of death and human anguish;
long months and years that had thin
ned regiments of q thousand men down
to hundred-all were past, the end
had come, and before the eyes of
those SCARED and war-worn veterans
arose. in q moment, blessed pictures OF
peace and home! Doyou wonder that
they INDUCED IN those wild and ex.
travagant demonstrations Of joyf
Added to these were the glad feeling OF
victory at last, after all the blood
and Indebtedness and the patriotic
rejoicing over a nation saved by their
valor and sacrifices. Let me ask i!
you wouldn't have been very likely to
make a fool of yourself for the time
being if you had been there? Let us
hope the recording angel yelled her
face that night" ""s>
Charitable Red Tapes
There seems to be such thing as
too much charity, at least OF the Or
ganized kind, in New York, and a writ
er from that city suggests that lit
might not De a bad idea if we had a